No Time Left
by star.spills
Summary: Written for an old unfilled kinkmeme request. Larry asks Maya to channel Cindy to find out if she really liked him - or not. Not-so-spoilers for the first game.


_**wrote this for an old kinkmeme request dating back to 2010 that i found while browsing through old stories; "Larry asks Maya to channel Cindy Stone so he can ask her if she really liked him or not.". and so i wrote it.**_

_**Ace Attorney does not belong to me.**_

_(no time left)_

Cindy opened her eyes soundlessly, a single breath letting itself out of her mouth. She blinked several times, still not saying a word to the painfully familiar young man that stood awkwardly in front of her. Her - or rather, Maya's - lips trembled slightly, a rush of mixed emotion painted quite clearly on her face.

"...Larry?" Was the first thing that came out of her mouth, a tinge of uncertainty in her soft voice.

"C-cindy!" Larry exclaimed, and Cindy could see tears of joy welling up inside his eyes. "I've missed you so!" He leaned in for a hug, but she stepped backwards just in time for him to trip over the ground and fall. _He hasn't changed a bit_.

Cindy felt a smile tug at her lips, perhaps from the amusement of watching old Larry Butz making a complete fool of himself, as usual - or perhaps, because she misses him too. Her mind quickly brushes the thought off, and she puts her hand on her hips. "W-what do you want?" she asked, her cold tone of talking still perfectly preserved in the afterlife and back.

She knew for a fact that this visit into the "real" world will be a brief one - Maya, the girl who she was supposedly borrowing the body of, had told her about it when she contacted her. The younger girl didn't say the reason, and Cindy didn't ask. She wanted to walk through the busy streets as a _being_, not as some wandering clueless _spirit_ - that's all she could think about as the channeling process started, to ease her nerves.

"So, uh." Larry scratched the back of his head sheepishly as he got back on his feet. "I-I've been meaning to ask Maya to do this for a little while, actually..."

"...go on." Cindy sighed, trying not to notice how close this park was to the apartment where she met her demise - yet it was so _damn hard to do_, to not have glimpses of the last moments of her life (heavy, desperate breathing - blood, all over the place - _regrets_) played over and over in her mind like a broken video player. _Has it been... what, three months already? I haven't noticed._

"The reason I called you here, was so I could ask you a few questions." Larry said with a shaky, yet defiant tone.

Sitting down on a nearby bench, Cindy immediately realized where this was going.

A bitter chuckle. "It's not like I have any more reasons to keep secrets."

Larry joined her, and the small wooden bench was soon cramped. "First of all... is it true that you're seeing other people during the few months when you stopped answering my calls?" He stared up towards the clear sky, avoiding Cindy's gaze. "I'm sorry, but I just have to know."

"...It's true." Cindy stated, plain and flat. "But I have my reasons."

"And what is that?"

"I haven't had any good bookings for a while that time." She didn't know why she chose to tiptoe around the simple truth that she was going on dinners with men in their thirties to feed herself - or in a harsher language, she's playing prostitute. A few incoherent mumbles came out of her mouth, not meaning anything in particular. Most of the things she had done and accomplished in life had no meaning as well.

"Ah." Larry nodded. "I suppose I understand."Truthfully, he didn't. Was Cindy simply too proud to ask _him_ for help? Did she even _consider_ the possibility?

"I'm sorry." Cindy whispered faintly, and yet Larry could still hear her.

"Hmph." Larry stifled a laugh. "Sahwit killed you because of me." A pause.

_That's ridiculous._

"I left the door open that day, remember? If the door was locked, then _he_ wouldn't have been able to come inside..." The rest of the story was still fresh in their memories. "I'm an idiot, aren't I? You could've still been alive if it wasn't for that."

"I don't care." Cindy interrupted. _I really don't_. "I probably would be better off dead anyways. My life's a... trainwreck, to put it lightly, so I guess death was a nice getaway from it all."

Larry never noticed how utterly _broken_ Cindy was inside. He supposes it was justified - she _was_ a model, after all. She's trained to smile, to pretend that she's in her best if the job requires her to. Maybe that sunny façade was what made him go after her in the first place, but he wasn't sure.

Silence, for God-knows-how-long.

"I think Maya's coming back." Cindy said in the most nonchalant of tone, hiding the sudden wave of _something_ that hit her. "I guess this is goodbye, huh Larry?" she smiled, mockingly.

"Eeh!" Larry exclaimed suddenly, his face surprised. "But I haven't got the chance to ask you the last question!"

"So get over with it, then!" _This mood whiplash is making me even dizzier._

"Phoenix told me after the trial that you carried that clock I made for you all the way to Paris, even though it was heavy. Is... there any particular reason for that?"

Cindy was fading, she could feel it. "Yes." She could feel the familiar wetness of tears that had started to gather in her eyes - she usually reserved crying in the lateness of night after one too many sips of alcohol. "I was going to call you, and explain everything." Larry was frozen in place. "Then I'd expect you to get mad and-" she disguises the quiet sob as a chuckle, "-and then you'd break up with me..."

"_...painlessly and quickly..." Just like all the others._

"Why would I do such a thing?" _I'd be too busy being happy. _"Not that it really matters, now." _I finally get someone that means something to me, and she gets killed - all because of me._

"You really can't see it, can you..." Her voice trailed off, becoming even quieter with every word she said. "I'm not worth it, Larry." Now it was barely more than a whisper. "Why can't you just move on?" Larry could only catch the slightest bit of words. "I'm...

_...such an idiot." _

And in the blink of an eye, she was gone - again. Cindy Stone had disappeared, and who sat limply on the wooden bench was Maya Fey.

"So how did it go?"

-fin


End file.
